Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by William Sleeman

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Notes:

1. A fortress, twenty-five miles cast of Sagar, captured by a
British force under General Watson in October 1818, For Seori and
Raja Arjun Singh see _ante_, Chapter 17, text by notes 1 and 4.

2. Amir Khan, a leader of predatory horse, has been justly described
as 'one of the most atrocious villains that India ever produced'. He
first came into notice in 1804, as an officer in Holkar's service,
and in the following year opposed Lord Lake at Bharatpur. A treaty
made with him in 1817 put an end to his activity. The Pindharis were
organized bands of mounted robbers, who desolated Northern and
Central India during the period of anarchy which followed the
dissolution of the Moghal empire. They were associated with the
Marathas in the war which terminated with the capture of Asirgarh in
April 1819. In the same year the Pindhari forces ceased to exist as a
distinct and recognized, body.

My father was an Afghan, and came from Kandahar:
He rode with Nawab Amir Khan in the old Maratha war:
From the Dekhan to the Himalay, five hundred of one clan,
They asked no leave of prince or chief as they swept thro'
Hindusthan.

(Sir A. Lyall, 'The Old Pindaree'; in _Verses written in India_,
London, 1889).

3. Named Govind Rao. The proper name of the Sarimant was Ramchand Rao
(_C.P. Gazetteer_, 1870).

4. Kurmin is the feminine of Kurmi, the name of a widely spread and
most industrious agricultural caste, closely connected, at least in
Bundelkhand, with the similar Lodhi caste.

5. Marwar, or Jodhpur, is one of the leading states in Rajputana. It
supplies the rest of India with many of the keenest merchants and
bankers.

6. See _ante_, Chapter 4, note 6, for remarks on the supposed
prophetic gifts of sati women.

7. Such feelings of resignation to the Divine will, or fate, are
common alike to Hindoos and Musalmans.

8. 'One of a wife's duties should be to keep all bad omens out of her
husband's way, or manage to make him look at something lucky in the
early morning. . . . Different lists of inauspicious objects are
given, which, if looked upon in the early morning, might cause
disaster' (M. Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_, p.
397).

9. Dr. Spry died in 1842, and his estate was administered by the
author. The doctor's works are described _ante_, Chapter 14, note 16.

CHAPTER 22

Interview with the Raja who marries the Stone to the Shrub--Order of
the Moon and the Fish.

On the 8th,[1] after a march of twelve miles, we readied Tehri, the
present capital of the Raja of Orchha.[2] Our road lay over an
undulating surface of soil composed of the detritus of the syenitic
rock, and poor, both from its quality and want of depth. About three
miles from our last territory we entered the boundary of the Orchha
Raja's territory, at the village of Aslon, which has a very pretty
little fortified castle, built upon ground slightly elevated in the
midst of an open grass plain.

This, and all the villages we have lately passed, are built upon the
bare back of the syenitic rock, which seems to rise to the surface in
large but gentle swells, like the broad waves of the ocean in a calm
after a storm. A great difference appeared to me to be observable
between the minds and manners of the people among whom we were now
travelling, and those of the people of the Sagar and Nerbudda
territories. They seemed here to want the urbanity and intelligence
we find among our subjects in the latter quarters.

The apparent stupidity of the people when questioned upon points the
most interesting to them, regarding their history, their agriculture,
their tanks, and temples, was most provoking; and their manners
seemed to me more rude and clownish than those of people in any other
part of India I had travelled over. I asked my little friend the
Sarimant, who rode with me, what he thought of this.

'I think', said he, 'that it arises from the harsh character of the
government under which they live; it makes every man wish to appear a
fool, in order that he may be thought a beggar and not worth the
plundering.'

'It strikes me, my friend Sarimant, that their government has made
them in reality the beggars and the fools that they appear to be.'

'God only knows', said Sarimant; 'certain it is that they are neither
in mind nor in manners what the people of our districts are.'

The Raja had no notice of our approach till intimation of it reached
him at Ludhaura, the day before we came in. He was there resting, and
dismissing the people after the ceremonies of the marriage between
the Salagram and the Tulasi. Ludhaura is twenty-seven miles north-
west of Tehri, on the opposite side from that on which I was
approaching. He sent off two men on camels with a 'kharita'
(letter),[3] requesting that I would let him know my movements, and
arrange a meeting in a manner that might prevent his appearing
wanting in respect and hospitality; that is, in plain terms, which he
was too polite to use, that I would consent to remain one stage from
his capital, till he could return and meet me half-way, with all due
pomp and ceremony. These men reached me at Bamhauri,[4] a distance of
thirty-nine miles, in the evening, and I sent back a kharita, which
reached him by relays of camels before midnight. He set out for his
capital to receive me, and, as I would not wait to be met half-way in
due form, he reached his palace, and we reached our tents at the same
time, under a salute from his two brass field-pieces.

We halted at Tehri on the 9th, and about eleven o'clock the Raja came
to pay his visit of congratulation, with a magnificent _cortege_ of
elephants, camels, and horses, all mounted and splendidly
caparisoned, and the noise of his band was deafening. I had had both
my tents pitched, and one of them handsomely fitted up, as it always
is, for occasions of ceremony like the present. He came to within
twenty paces of the door on his elephant, and from its back, as it
sat down, he entered his splendid litter, without alighting on the
ground.[5] In this vehicle he was brought to my tent door, where I
received him, and, after the usual embraces, conducted him up through
two rows of chairs, placed for his followers of distinction and my
own, who are always anxious to assist in ceremonies like these.

At the head of this lane we sat upon chairs placed across, and
facing down the middle of the two rows; and we conversed upon all the
subjects usually introduced on such occasions, but more especially
upon the august ceremonies of the marriage of the Salagram with the
Tulasi, in which his highness had been so _piously_ engaged at
Ludhaura.[6] After he had sat with me an hour and a half he took his
leave, and I conducted him to the door, whence he was carried to his
elephant in his litter, from which he mounted without touching the
ground.

This litter is called a 'nalki'. It is one of the three great
insignia which the Mogul Emperors of Delhi conferred upon independent
princes of the first class, and could never be used by any person
upon whom, or upon whose ancestors, they had not been so conferred.
These were the nalki, the order of the Fish, and the fan of the
peacock's feathers. These insignia could be used only by the prince
who inherited the sovereignty of the one on whom they had been
originally conferred. The order of the Fish, or Mahi Maratib, was
first instituted by Khusru Parviz, King of Persia, and grandson of
the celebrated Naushirvan the Just. Having been deposed by his
general, Bahram, Khusru fled for protection to the Greek emperor,
Maurice, whose daughter, Shirin, he married, and he was sent back to
Persia, with an army under the command of Narses, who placed him on
the throne of his ancestors in the year A.D. 591.[7] He ascertained
from his astrologer, Araz Khushasp, that when he ascended the throne
the moon was in the constellation of the Fish, and he gave orders to
have two balls made of polished steel, which were to be called
Kaukabas (planets),[8] and mounted on long poles. These two planets,
with large fish made of gold, upon a third pole in the centre, were
ordered to be carried in all regal processions immediately after the
king, and before the prime minister, whose _cortege_ always followed
immediately after that of the king. The two kaukabas are now
generally made of copper, and plated, and in the shape of a jar,
instead of quite round as at first; but the fish is still made of
gold. Two planets are always considered necessary to one fish, and
they are still carried in all processions between the prince and his
prime minister.

The court of this prince Khusru Parviz was celebrated throughout the
East for its splendour and magnificence; and the chaste love of the
poet Farhad for his beautiful queen Shirin is the theme of almost as
many poems in the East as that of Petrarch's for Laura is in the
West. Nuh Samani, who ascended the throne of Persia after the
Sassanians,[9] ascertained that the moon was in the sign Leo at the
time of his accession, and ordered that the gold head of a lion
should thenceforward accompany the fishes, and the two balls, in all
royal processions. The Persian order of knighthood is, therefore,
that of the Fish, the Moon, and the Lion, and not the Lion and Sun,
as generally supposed. The emperors of the house of Taimur in
Hindustan assumed the right of conferring the order upon all whom
they pleased, and they conferred it upon the great territorial
sovereigns of the country without distinction as to religion. He only
who inherits the sovereignty can wear the order, and I believe no
prince would venture to wear or carry the order who was not generally
reputed to have received the investiture from one of the emperors of
Delhi.[10]

As I could not wait another day, it was determined that I should
return his visit in the afternoon; and about four o'clock we set out
upon our elephant--Lieutenant Thomas, Sarimant, and myself, attended
by all my troopers and those of Sarimant. We had our silver-stick men
with us; but still all made a sorry figure compared with the splendid
_cortege_ of the Raja. We dismounted at the foot of the stairs
leading to the Raja's hall of audience, and were there met by his two
chief officers of state, who conducted us to the entrance of the
hall, when we were received by the Raja himself, who led us up
through two rows of chairs laid out exactly as mine had been in the
morning. In front were assembled a party of native comedians, who
exhibited a few scenes of the insolence of office in the attendants
of great men, and the obtrusive importunity of place-seekers, in a
manner that pleased us much more than a dance would have done.
Conversation was kept up very well, and the visit passed off without
any feeling of ennui, or anything whatever to recollect with regret.
The ladies looked at us from their apartments through gratings, and
without our being able to see them very distinctly. We were anxious
to see the tombs of the late Raja, the elder brother of the present,
who lately died, and that of his son, which are in progress in a very
fine garden outside the city walls, and, in consequence, we did not
sit above half an hour. The Raja conducted us to the head of the
stairs, and the same two officers attended us to the bottom, and
mounted their horses, and attended us to the tombs.

After the dust of the town raised by the immense crowd that attended
us, and the ceremonies of the day, a walk in this beautiful garden
was very agreeable, and I prolonged it till dark. The Raja had given
orders to have all the cisterns filled during our stay, under the
impression that we should wish to see the garden; and, as soon as we
entered, the _jets d'eau_ poured into the air their little floods
from a hundred mouths. Our old cicerone told us that, if we would
take the old capital of Orchha in our way, we might there see the
thing in perfection, and amidst the deluges of the rains of Sawan and
Bhadon (July and August) see the lightning and hear the thunder. The
Rajas of this, the oldest principality in Bundelkhand, were all
formerly buried or burned at the old capital of Orchha, even after
they had changed their residence to Tehri. These tombs over the ashes
of the Raja, his wife, and son, are the first that have been built at
Tehri, where their posterity are all to repose in future.

Notes:

1. December, 1835.

2. The State of Orchha, also known as Tehri or Tikamgarh, situated to
the south of the Jhansi district, is the oldest and the highest in
rank of the Bundela principalities. The town of Tehri is seventy-two
miles north-west of Sagar. The town of Orchha, founded in A.D. 1531,
is 131 miles north of Sagar, and about forty miles from Tehri.
Tikamgarh is the fort of Tehri.

3. A _kharita_ is a letter enclosed in a bag of rich brocade,
contained in another of fine muslin. The mouth is tied with a string
of silk, to which hangs suspended the great seal, which is a flat
round mass of sealing-wax, with the seal impressed on each side of
it. This is the kind of letter which passes between natives of great
rank in India, and between them and the public functionaries of
Government. [W. H. S.]

4. _Ante_, Chapter 19, after note [15].

5. The Raja's unwillingness to touch the ground is an example of a
very widespread and primitive belief. 'Two of those rules or taboos
by which . . . the life of divine kings or priests is regulated. The
first is . . . that the divine personage may not touch the ground
with his foot.' This prohibition applies to the Mikado of Japan and
many other sacred personages. 'The second rule is that the sun may
not shine upon the sacred person.' This second rule explains the use
of the umbrella as a royal appendage in India and Burma. (Frazer,
_The Golden Bough_, 1st ed., vol. ii, pp. 224, 225.)

6 _Ante_, Chapter 19, note 3.

7. During the time he remained the guest of the emperor he resided at
Hierapolis, and did not visit Constantinople. The Greeks do not admit
that Shirin was the daughter of Maurice, though a Roman by birth and
a Christian by religion. The Persians and Turks speak of her as the
emperor's daughter. [W. H. S.] Khusru Parviz (Eberwiz), or Khusru II,
reigned as King of Persia from A.D. 591 to 628. In the course of his
wars he took Jerusalem, and reduced Egypt, and a large part of
northern Africa, extending for a time the bounds of the Persian
empire to the Aegean and the Nile. Khusru I, surnamed Naushirvan, or
(more correctly) Anushirvan, reigned from A.D. 531 to 579. His
successful wars with the Romans and his vigorous internal
administration captivated the Oriental imagination, and he is
generally spoken of as Adil, or The Just. His name has become
proverbial, and to describe a superior as rivalling Naushirvan in
justice is a commonplace of flattery. The prophet Muhammad was born
during his reign, and was proud of the fact. The alleged expedition
of Naushirvan into India is discredited by the best modern writers.
Gibbon tells the story of the wars between the two Khusrus and the
Romans in his forty-sixth chapter, and a critical history of the
reigns of both Khusru (Khosrau) I and Khusru II will be found in
Professor Rawlinson's _Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy_ (London,
1876). European authors have, until recently, generally written the
name Khusru in its Greek form as Chosroes. The name of Shirin is also
written Sira.

'With the name of Shirin and the rock of Bahistun the Persians have
associated one of those poetic romances so dear to the national
genius. Ferhad, the most famous sculptor of his time, who was very
likely employed by Chosroes II to execute these bas-reliefs, is said
in the legend to have fallen madly in love with Shirin, and to have
received a promise of her from the king, if he would cut through the
rock of Behistun, and divert a stream to the Kermanshah plain. The
lover set to work, and had all but completed his gigantic enterprise
(of which the remains, however interpreted, are still to be seen),
when he was falsely informed by an emissary from the king of his
lady's death. In despair he leaped from the rock, and was dashed to
pieces. The legend of the unhappy lover is familiar throughout the
East, and is used to explain many traces of rock-cutting or
excavation as far east as Beluchistan' (_Persia and the Persian
Question_, by the Hon. George N. Curzon, M.P. (London, 1892), vol. i,
p. 562, note. See also Malcolm, _History of Persia_, vol. i, p. 129).

8. _Kaukab_ in Arabic means 'a star'. Steingass (_Persian
Dictionary_) defines _Kaukaba_ as 'a polished steel ball suspended to
a long pole, and carried as an ensign before the king; a star of
gold, silver, or tinsel, worn as ornament or sign of rank; a
concourse of people; a royal train, retinue, cavalcade; splendour'.

9. Yezdegird III (Isdigerd), the last of the Sassanians, was defeated
in A.D. 641 at the battle of Nahavend by the Arab Noman, general of
the Khalif Omar, and driven from his throne. The supremacy of the
Khalifs over Persia lasted till A.D. 1258. The subordinate Samani
dynasty ruled over Khurasan, Seistan, Balkh, and the countries of
Trans-Oxiana in the tenth century. Two of the princes of this line
were named Nuh, or Noah. The author probably refers to the better
known of the two, Amir Nuh II (Malcolm, _History of Persia_, ed.
1829, vol. i, pp. 158-66).

10. The poor old blind emperor. Shah Alam, when delivered from the
Marathas in 1803 by Lord Lake, did all he could to show his gratitude
by conferring on his deliverer honours and titles, and among them the
'Mahi Maratib'. The editor has been unable to discover the source of
the author's story of the origin of the Persian order of knighthood.
Malcolm, an excellent authority, gives the following very different
account: 'Their sovereigns have, for many centuries, preserved as the
peculiar arms of the country,[e] the sign or figure of Sol in the
constellation of Leo; and this device, a lion couchant and the sun
rising at his back, has not only been sculptured upon their
palaces[f] and embroidered upon their banners.[g] but has been
converted into an Order,[h] which in the form of gold and silver
medals, has been given to such as have distinguished themselves
against the enemies of their country.[i]

_Note e_. The causes which led to the sign of Sol in Leo becoming the
arms of Persia cannot be distinctly traced, but there is reason to
believe that the use of this symbol is not of very great antiquity.
We meet with it upon the coins of one of the Seljukian princes of
Iconium; and, when this family had been destroyed by Hulaku [A.D.
1258], the grandson of Chengiz, that prince, or his successors,
perhaps adopted this emblem as a trophy of their conquest, whence it
has remained ever since among the most remarkable of the royal
insignia. A learned friend, who has a valuable collection of Oriental
coins, and whose information and opinion have enabled me to make this
conjecture, believes that the emblematical representation of Sol in
Leo was first adopted by Ghias-ud-din Kai Khusru bin Kaikobad, who
began to reign A.H. 634, A.D. 1236, and died A.H. 642, A.D. 1244; and
this emblem, he adds, is supposed to have reference either to his own
horoscope or to that of his queen, who was a princess of Georgia.

_Note f_. Hanway states, vol. i, p. 199, that over the gate which
forms the entrance of the palace built by Shah Abbas the Great [A.D.
1586 to 1628] at Ashraf, in Mazenderan, are 'the arms of Persia,
being a lion, and the sun rising behind it'.

_Note g_. The emblem of the Lion and Sun is upon all the banners
given to the regular corps of infantry lately formed. They are
presented to the regiments with great ceremony. A mulla, or priest,
attends, and implores the divine blessing on them.

_Note h_. This order, with additional decorations, has been lately
conferred upon several ministers and representatives of European
Governments in alliance with Persia.

_Note i_. The medals which have been struck with this symbol upon
them have been chiefly given to the Persian officers and men of the
regular corps who have distinguished themselves in the war with the
Russians. An English officer, who served with these troops, informs
me that those on whom these medals have been conferred are very proud
of this distinction, and that all are extremely anxious to obtain
them (_History of Persia_, ed. 1829, vol. ii, p. 406).

In Curzon's figure the lion is standing, not 'couchant', as stated by
Malcolm, and grasps a scimitar in his off forepaw.

CHAPTER 23

The Raja of Orchha--Murder of his many Ministers.

The present Raja, Mathura Das, succeeded his brother Bikramajit, who
died in 1834. He had made over the government to his only son, Raja
Bahadur, whom he almost adored; but, the young man dying some years
before him, the father resumed the reins of government, and held them
till his death. He was a man of considerable capacity, but of a harsh
and unscrupulous character. His son resembled him; but the present
Raja is a man of mild temper and disposition, though of weak
intellect. The fate of the last three prime ministers will show the
character of the Raja and his son, and the nature of their rule.

The minister at the time the old man made over the reins of
government to his son was Khanju Purohit.[1] Wishing to get rid of
him a few years after, this son, Raja Bahadur, employed Muhram Singh,
one of his feudal Rajput barons, to assassinate him. As a reward for
this service he received the seals of office; and the Raja
confiscated all the property of the deceased, amounting to four lakhs
of rupees[2] and resumed the whole of the estates held by the family.

The young Raja died soon after; and his father, when he resumed the
reins of government, wishing to remove the new minister, got him
assassinated by Gambhir Singh, another feudal Rajput baron, who, as
his reward, received in his turn the seals of office. This man was a
most atrocious villain, and employed the public establishments of his
chief to plunder travellers on the high road. In 1833 his followers
robbed four men, who were carrying treasure to the amount of ten
thousand rupees from Sagar to Jhansi through Tehri, and intended to
murder them; but, by the sagacity of one of the party, and a lucky
accident, they escaped, made their way back to Sagar, and complained
to the magistrate.[3] The[4] minister discovered the nature of their
burdens as they lodged at Tehri on their way, and sent after them a
party of soldiers, with orders to put them in the bed of a rivulet
that separated the territory of Orchha from that of the Jhansi Raja.
One of the treasure party discovered their object; and, on reaching
the bank of the rivulet in a deep grass jungle, he threw down his
bundle, dashed unperceived through the grass, and reached a party of
travellers whom he saw ascending a hill about half a mile in advance.
The myrmidons of the minister, when they found that one had escaped,
were afraid to murder the others, but took their treasure. In spite
of great obstacles, and with much danger to the families of three of
those men, who resided in the capital of Tehri, the magistrate of
Sagar brought the crime home to the minister, and the Raja, anxious
to avail himself of the occasion to fill his coffers, got him
assassinated. The Raja was then about eighty years of age, and his
minister was a strong, athletic, and brave man. One morning while he
was sitting with him in private conversation, the former pretended a
wish to drink some of the water in which his household god had been
washed (the 'chandan mirt'),[5] and begged the minister to go and
fetch it from the place where it stood by the side of the idol in the
court of the palace. As a man cannot take his sword before the idol,
the minister put it down, as the Raja knew he would, and going to the
idol, prostrated himself before it preparatory to taking away the
water. In that state he was cut down by Bihari,[6] another feudal
Rajput baron, who aspired to the seals, and some of his friends, who
had been placed there on purpose by the Raja. He obtained the seals
by his service, and, as he was allowed to place one brother in
command of the forces, and to make another chamberlain, he hoped to
retain them longer than any of his predecessors had done. Gambhir
Singh's brother, Jhujhar Singh, and the husband of his sister,
hearing of his murder, made off, but were soon pursued and put to
death. The widows were all three put into prison, and all the
property and estates were confiscated. The movable property amounted
to three lakhs of rupees.[7] The Raja boasted to the Governor-
General's representative in Bundelkhand of this act of retributive
justice, and pretended that it was executed merely as a punishment
for the robbery; but it was with infinite difficulty the merchants
could recover from him any share of the plundered property out of
that confiscated. The Raja alleged that, according to our _rules_,
the chief within whose boundary the robbery might have been
committed, was obliged to make good the property. On inspection, it
was found that the robbery was perpetrated upon the very boundary
line, and 'in spite of pride, in erring reason's spite', the Jhansi
Raja was made to pay one-half of the plundered treasure.